Don't let the name fool you. Vampire Weekend are not some Ramones or Cramps-inspired band, climbing out of the grime of CBGBs to bring their drug-addled lifestyles to admiring Brits.

Dressed in Ralph Lauren shirts, deck shoes and chinos - and hailing from the privileged campus of New York's Columbia University - they look a world away from the UK's sweaty T-shirted and skinny-jeaned indie scene.

Their musical influences are also a long way away from the Libertines or The Strokes - these four are more interested in afro-pop and world rhythms than whatever Pete Doherty did last week.

The only real New York heritage to be heard in their resolutely undistorted guitars and skipping rhythms points towards Fear Of Music/Speaking In Tongues period Talking Heads and the vocal stylings of Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers.

Their songs, meanwhile, can centre on obscure grammatical rules, such as Oxford Comma, and neo-classical buildings, as in Mansard Roof.

The distinctive style of the four-piece, based around singer Ezra Koenig, keyboard player Rostam Batmanglij, bassist Chris Baio and drummer Christopher Tomson, comes from their diverse musical influences.

"Ezra and I were both really into pop and classical music," says Rostam.

"When we first met we thought we should be a band - but that didn't happen until four years later.

"We tried being a folk band, which was cool but we only played one show. We kept working on music separately and playing each other music. Then we stared working on recording a rap group."

In February 2006 Vampire Weekend took shape, taking their name from a lo-fi horro movie Ezra had made for fun, with the song Walcott coming from the same film.

From there they cultivated the sound they have described as Upper West Side Soweto, building up an impressive internet following along the way.

"I'm interested in how American preppiness characteristics of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, or WASPs, in the eastern United States is explicitly linked to Victorian British Imperialism," says Ezra.

"Preppiness comes out of this time period where the world's cultures were getting mixed up for the first time.

The reason that's interesting now is that we really have this global society.

"It got me thinking about incorporating musical influences that some people view as 'tropical'. But it's not hard to integrate that stuff into traditional Western guitar music. It's not hard to make it cohesive."

  • Starts 7pm, tickets £7. Call Resident Records, in Kensington Gardens, Brighton, on 01273 606312 or Rounder Records, in Brighton Square, on 01273 325440.